Precision surgical system

Abstract

A high-speed surgical handpiece (10) suitable for vitreoretinal surgery having a cutter (42) and actuators (36). The cutter (42) is a guillotine-type cutter activated by an array of leveraged piezoelectric actuators (30) that receive a driving signal from a driving controller. The controller can have control and display units with a plurality of input mechanisms receiving input from a user who selects a desired cutting rate and frequency for the cutter. The control unit produces a piezoelectric actuator output signal based on the inputs received. Fast cutting rates with reduced duty cycle as well as a proportional mode of operation are available, allowing slow controlled cutting action, for example proportional to depression of a foot-pedal (74). Low degrees of vibration and noise generation are produced.

Description

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of related U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60 / 596740 filed Oct. 18, 2005 titled “Piezoelectric Vitrectomy Probe”.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] This invention is related to electrically operated surgical systems, and more particularly to a surgical system of the kind suitable for vitreoretinal surgery powered by a piezoelectric mechanism. DISCUSSION OF PRIOR ART [0003] The intraocular portion of current vitrectomy probes typically consists in a closed end outer tube having a distal end sideport to aspirate the vitreous, and an inner tube that oscillates axially during operation in a way that the distal end sharp edge can displace with a cutting action across said sideport. Oscillation of the inner tube is typically provided by pneumatic turbines and electric rotary motors. Also, diaphragm based pneumatic systems have been used operated by fast changes in pressure levels inside a gas chamber at...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0013] It is an object of the present invention to provide a vitreous cutter mechanism that allows a fast cutting speed of the cutting edge across the aspirating sideport irrespective of the cutting rate in cuts per minute. It is another object of the present invention to provide a vitrectomy probe that can operate efficiently at speeds above 2.000 cuts per minute. It is still another object of the present invention to provide a vitreous cutter handpiece where the open sideport ratio is above 50% at high operating frequencies.

[0014] It is still another object of the present invention to provide a vitreous cutter handpiece that allows adjustment of the position of the cutting border within a vitrectomy handpiece cutting sideport to regulate the effective area o

Problems solved by technology

Electrically driven vitreous cutters can operate at higher speeds, up to 3.000 cuts per minute, but are typically heavy, delicate and vibrate during operation.

Pneumatic handpieces exhibit a progressive increase duty cycle portion where the sideport is closed as the cut rate is increased, as physical limitations apply to recycle the guillotine cutter with its biasing preloading spring.

One limitation of known vitreous cutters operating at high speed is that the duty cycle portion where the sideport is open becomes progressively reduced as the operating speed is increased.

This increase of the portion where the sideport is closed with respect to the duration of one full cycle reduces cutter efficiency as less time is available for vacuum to aspirate vitreous tissue into the sideport for the cutting and aspirating action.

The reduced efficiency increases surgical time increasing complications such as post-vitrectomy cataract formation and reduces operating room turn around.

Another limitation of current vitrectomy cutters operating at high speed is that there is vibration of the tip related to movements of the internal mechanisms used to power the cutting edges.

Another limitation of current vitrectomy cutters is that regulation of the open sideport area cannot be adjusted or requires manual mechanical adjustments at handpiece level.

Still another limitation of current vitrectomy cutters operated at high speed is that the vibration of the internal mechanisms used to power the cutting edges produces noise.

Still another limitation of current vitrectomy cutters is that they do not allow direct control of the cutting blade following an analog footpedal command that produces a displacement of the blade proportional to or as a function of the displacement of the footpedal or other analog user interface input.

Still another limitation of current electric vitrectomy cutters is that speed of the cutting blade is coupled to the cutting rate.

Still another limitation in the case of pneumatic cutters is that the effective open sideport ratio is reduced as the cut rate is increased near the upper end.

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